India combining well as a bowling unit: Sunil Gavaskar

Melbourne: Impressed with the excellent bowling show by the Indian team so far, former captain Sunil Gavaskar on Thursday said that the bowlers have combined well as a unit to pick all the opposition wickets in the seven wins on the trot in the ongoing cricket World Cup.

India, who thrashed Bangladesh in the quarter-finals here on Thursday, are well on course to defend their title as the bowling attack led by Mohammed Shami -- highest wicket-taker (17 scalps in six games) in the tournament so far -- has managed to bundle out the opposition in all the games, and Gavaskar is impressed with the show by the bowlers.

"They are combining well as a bowling unit. The seam bowlers are keeping the pressure on, somebody is getting you early wickets and then there is no leakage of runs. Sometimes the first-change bowlers comes and he leaks a lot of runs, that hasn't happened. The spinners have kept it tight as well.

So all told, the bowling unit has been very impressive," Gavaskar said after India's 109-run win against Bangladesh.

"They have dismissed have every single team they have played against and I think what more can a captain ask for. He gets into a position where he really doesn't have to worry too much about one bowler getting hammered because that can happen in a one-day situation," he added.

Gavaskar also praised Dhoni's handling of his regular and non-regular bowling options.

"What Dhoni is doing is that he is using Suresh Raina very cleverly. He is bringing him in on if (Ravindra) Jadeja or (Ravinchandran) Ashwin go for a few runs in their first couple of overs till they settle down and then Raina comes in and bowls 3-4 quick overs and sometimes more than that, picks up a wicket, keeps it tight and then Dhoni can go back to the spinners and get them to bowl well," he said.